BT Sport's opening gambit

They've bought all of the rights that ESPN and ESPN America held and they will carry forward a branded ESPN channel. The assumption - not yet confirmed - that ESPN will basically be ESPN America as the more popular stuff will be on BT Sports 1&2.

I guess they're going for a similar model to the very early Sky days (and a lot of the major internet companies, such as Facebook, Youtube etc).

That is, offer great content value for money to get the product known and people hooked. Then slowly ramp up the ads to start making massive profit.

Goodness knows that BT have got some good content to start pressuring Sky's position. And all Sky seem to have done in response is buy up a few Welsh RU games? It will be a good day for the punter if the content can remain cheap and easy via a competitive marketplace, goodness knows that Sky have had an easy ride most of the time.

Given that they're spending £6.6m per Premier League match it's something of a surprise it's even close to being free.

It's just the start. You go low to attract customers to your broadband/phone service. Don't worry, if they become a regular bidder for Premier League/Union rights, which they most likely will, those prices are going to go up accordingly. They just need market share for sports subscriptions, and there's nothing like a free deal to do that.

Heck of a lot of advertising around London for BT now. Seems to ramped up this week alone, with seemingly every second billboard or newspaper page having a page having a picture of Bale, Van Persie with the major point being it's free (with small print stating on BT Broadband). They've obviously got a big budget and are splashing the cash in all forms of media.

The question is, what sport are they showing over the summer months? The premiership and RU don't run through June/July and most of May/August.

That's a big window to fill and you can't seriously suggest that cricket can bring in the punters? Possibly an opportunity for some SL games, or even the tail end of the CC?

Heck of a lot of advertising around London for BT now. Seems to ramped up this week alone, with seemingly every second billboard or newspaper page having a page having a picture of Bale, Van Persie with the major point being it's free (with small print stating on BT Broadband). They've obviously got a big budget and are splashing the cash in all forms of media.

The question is, what sport are they showing over the summer months? The premiership and RU don't run through June/July and most of May/August.

That's a big window to fill and you can't seriously suggest that cricket can bring in the punters? Possibly an opportunity for some SL games, or even the tail end of the CC?

Surely all this seasons RL has already been sold to Sky or Premier Sports.

Surely all this seasons RL has already been sold to Sky or Premier Sports.

And most of next seasons.......?SL deal till 2015?World Cup signed up. Guess BT must have looked at the RLWC and not bid enough given the timescales of the recent announcement of the RLWC TV deal and now the BT Sports Channel.Next years 4 Nations signed by BBC.Is it only the Championship and NRL available next season? Or maybe the 'spare' Challenge Cup game that Sky won't show? To me these are not attractive enough to entice BT.

Heck of a lot of advertising around London for BT now. Seems to ramped up this week alone, with seemingly every second billboard or newspaper page having a page having a picture of Bale, Van Persie with the major point being it's free (with small print stating on BT Broadband). They've obviously got a big budget and are splashing the cash in all forms of media.

The question is, what sport are they showing over the summer months? The premiership and RU don't run through June/July and most of May/August.

That's a big window to fill and you can't seriously suggest that cricket can bring in the punters? Possibly an opportunity for some SL games, or even the tail end of the CC?

This year they have a RU lions tour to fill the gaps if they have the rights.

And most of next seasons.......?
SL deal till 2015?
World Cup signed up. Guess BT must have looked at the RLWC and not bid enough given the timescales of the recent announcement of the RLWC TV deal and now the BT Sports Channel.
Next years 4 Nations signed by BBC.
Is it only the Championship and NRL available next season? Or maybe the 'spare' Challenge Cup game that Sky won't show? To me these are not attractive enough to entice BT.

ok, cheers. Its even more certain then that BT aren't going to get involved with RL anytime soon.Broadband change for me then, after BT charged us for going over the broadband download limit, by 1 GB and it supposedly happened the day no-one was in the house. 2nd time they've done that and hey presto, after you complain, your daily usage monitor goes down.

I've read today that apparently Sky are now looking to expand their coverage of RU's second tier to fill out their schedule, due to the intro of BT?

This is on top of Sky buying the rights to the RU celtic comp and means there will be a ridiculous amount of Union on TV next season.

Is there really that much TV value for RU in this country?

Interesting to note though is that the RU clubs are getting vocal because Sky don't want to pay more for the extra content.

So it must be more about filling gaps in the schedule at short notice, as opposed to actually attracting viewers.

It's an interesting one that's for sure, I can't help thinking that Sky will be kicking themselves for not buying in the NRL and the championship RL matches now, I can't see them getting more than the proverbial two men and a dog for the second tier of RU.

Just watched Newcastle Falcons v Leeds Carnegie.
Not one try scored and commentators enthusing throughout about it .
Not one negative comment.
Unlike Eddie, Stevo etc who seem to nowadays delight in being negative.
Comparing that dreary offering to yesterday's superb spectacle or even more pertinently to an average RL game one has to ask why as a sport do we criticise ourselves so much?

It's clear to me that we have an image problem, we don't sell our game well enough AND/OR advertisers don't think we're worth trying to sell to. That's a pretty big issue as far as the future of our game is concerned.

Noticed loads of roadside advertising also, as much emphasis on their union coverage as their football coverage. Have to say though, BT Broadband is the worst customer service i have ever experienced in my life, and if signing up for free had involved a telephone call i wouldn't have done it.

Noticed loads of roadside advertising also, as much emphasis on their union coverage as their football coverage. Have to say though, BT Broadband is the worst customer service i have ever experienced in my life, and if signing up for free had involved a telephone call i wouldn't have done it.

I'll be interested to see how their RU coverage pans out. ESPN gave it equal prominence at first as well. I think media types believe rugby union has a lot more casual viewers than reality suggests.

Heck of a lot of advertising around London for BT now. Seems to ramped up this week alone, with seemingly every second billboard or newspaper page having a page having a picture of Bale, Van Persie with the major point being it's free (with small print stating on BT Broadband). They've obviously got a big budget and are splashing the cash in all forms of media.

The question is, what sport are they showing over the summer months? The premiership and RU don't run through June/July and most of May/August.

That's a big window to fill and you can't seriously suggest that cricket can bring in the punters? Possibly an opportunity for some SL games, or even the tail end of the CC?

Cricket gets relatively good figures for T20 games. Also I believe the T20 games are all being moved to Friday and Saturday due to the huge difference in crowds for games held on those evenings so I am assuming something similar will happen to the BARB ratings. Do not forget they are taking up a significant amount of Motor sport which tends to be popular.